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Malinowski’s Argonauts of the Western Pacific was a major contribution to anthropological theory and method, while simultaneously establishing the sub-field of economic anthropology. Even a century after its publication, Malinowski’s pioneering work remains critical for anthropology in a postcolonial age. This volume uses ethnographic studies from around the world to contextualize the work politically and intellectually, examining its gestation and influence from multiple perspectives. It critically explores the meaning of “economy” for Malinowski from his formation in the Austro-Hungarian Empire to his path-breaking fieldwork in Melanesia and ensuing career in London.
“This book is remarkably interesting and useful in its composition; it takes us into completely new theoretical territory while tethering conversation back to the moment when Malinowski radically altered the aims of anthropological investigation.” • Huon Wardle, St. Andrews University
“This book revisits old themes in innovative and creative ways, and provides new understandings of Malinowski’s contributions to anthropology generally and economic anthropology specifically. The co-editors should be applauded for bringing together a very impressive group of scholars, many of whom have published major works on the history and contributions of Malinowski.” • Peter D. Little, Emory University
List of Illustrations
Introduction: Argonauts Revisited
Chris Hann and Deborah James
Part I: Bronislaw Malinowski and his Argonauts in Context
Chapter 1. Cultural Capital and Economic Stringency: Reality and Myth in Bronisław Malinowski’s Socio-Economic Background
Grażyna Kubica
Chapter 2. Tenerife 1921: The Writing of Argonauts
Michael W. Young
Chapter 3. Malinowski’s New Paradigm
Adam Kuper
Chapter 4. Malinowski and the Politics of Economic Anthropology: Between Imperial Trusteeship and Colonial Trade
Freddy Foks
Part II: Economy, Economics, and Epistemics
Chapter 5. Compulsion to Work? Malinowski and the Labour Question
Rachel E. Smith
Chapter 6. On Tribal and Other Economies
Richard Staley
Chapter 7. Malinowski’s Place in the History of Economic Thought
Chris Gregory
Chapter 8. Can Economic Anthropology Escape from Primitive Economics? Thinking Ethnographically from the Oikos
Benoît de L’Estoile
Part III: Cosmology, History, and Social Organization
Chapter 9. Baloma: The Spirits of the Kula in the Trobriand Islands
Mark S. Mosko
Chapter 10. The Archaeology of the Kula and Malinowski’s Notion of Economy
Hans Steinmüller
Chapter 11. Using Laozi to Interpret the Kula Ring: Rethinking the Dual Chieftainship in Kiriwina
Yongjia Liang
Part IV: Adaptations in Space and Time
Chapter 12. Passing On, Passing Around, and Passing Through: Urban Inheritance in South Africa as Circulation
Maxim Bolt
Chapter 13. The Anthropological Turn in the Sociology of Money
Ariel Wilkis
Chapter 14. The Digital Argonauts of the Western Pacific: From Kula Ring to Bush Internet
Geoffrey Hobbis and Stephanie Ketterer Hobbis
Afterword
Rebecca Empson
Index